Re: Memory Leak

[Sergei Steshenko]

--- On Mon, 1/21/13, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden> wrote:

> From: Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden>
> Subject: Re: Memory Leak
> To: "Sukanta Basu" <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden
> Date: Monday, January 21, 2013, 5:42 AM
> On 19 January 2013 22:46, Sukanta
> Basu <address@hidden>
> wrote:
> > I am using Octave 3.6.2 on Ubuntu 12.10. I have written
> a code for
> > solving certain fluid dynamics problem (~5000 lines)
> using Octave
> > and the openmpi_ext toolbox. I am noticing a strange
> problem with
> > Octave. The memory usage slowly increases with each
> iteration.
> 
> If there is indeed a memory leak, it can be in several
> possible
> locations.
> 
> It can be in the openmpi_ext package (due to trademark
> issues with The
> Mathworks, we don't generally refer to Octave packages as
> "toolboxes"), which would be a bug in this package.
> 
> It could be in in Open MPI. In that case, we should forward
> the bug to
> the OpenM PI maintainers.
> 
> It can be intrinsic in your m-file code, if you're
> inadvertently
> growing an array without bound.
> 
> It can be in Octave itself, which would be a bug in Octave.
> 
> At any rate, this shouldn't happen, and you have given no
> usable
> diagnostic information to find the memory leak. If you are
> unfamiliar
> with hunting memory leaks (using valgrind and such), then
> try to post
> your code which exhibits the memory leak so that other
> people can hunt
> it down. Optimally, you should trim down your code to a
> working sample
> that exhibits the problem.
> 
> - Jordi G. H.
> _______________________________________________


Memory leaks as such have nothing to do with the reported "Bus error" message.

However, if one, for example, uses FFTW memory allocation, and by mistake uses 
the one for floating point rather than double numbers, but perfoermd FFTW on 
doubles, this can be the cause of misaligned access, and the latter can cause 
"Bus error" message.

Regards,
  Sergei.